Kyle’s Review

Powers took a reflective step back this week. They built up Wolfe for a couple of episodes and now that he’s in The Shaft (superpower prison) again, the creative team has the time to see how his escape has affected the other major players. That’s a risky move. Viewers have grown accustomed to Powers’ fast pace (from episode three and beyond) and to Wolfe as an unspeakable evil, but to remove both at the same time—when both are working—took guts. And it worked—for the most part.

I’m glad I was wrong and that Triphammer’s still kicking. He put a fine point on depending too much on the drainer that saps the supervillains’ powers, while sowing the seeds of a new threat. Powers is playing this new baddie close to the vest, but it could be worse than Wolfe—or somehow connected to him. We’ll have to see how this plays out.

We got a lot of airtime and background from Johnny Royalle’s clone-popping henchman Simons and we see why he’d give the potentially life-threatening Sway to Calista. I also liked the focus on Krispin. His power hate serves as a good counter-weight to Calista power worship. But outside of these three developments, the rest of the episode was either just good or flat.

Sharlto Copley (Agent Walker) and Susan Heyward (Agent Pilgrim) have zero chemistry. That’s a shame. I liked Copley in District 9 and I can tell that Heyward’s a good actor too, but they don’t go well together. It’s painful and it makes me wonder what in the audition process made you think that these two actors played off each other well? Wolfe (Eddie Izzard) sounded wooden at episode’s end. I’m not sure how that’s possible and that could be the first time I’ve ever seen Izzard that lackluster—I think the dialogue had a lot to do with that. And the whole A-lister powers versus lesser ones didn’t sit well. The exchanges between characters felt clunky and I could’ve done without that much exposition.

Still, Powers retained some momentum as they only have a few more episodes until the finale. I hope we see more Johnny Royalle.

Verdict:

Powers took a bit of a step back this week but it’s still not as bad as its first two episodes.